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2014-05-12 - Midtown Moleman Madness
It was late afternoon in the center of Times Square. A bit more crowded than the usual rush hour, thanks to the nearest subway station being down and shoppers being limited to walking or taking the cabs, and so tempers were somewhat frayed then in the early summer heat and humidity. It wasn't helped by the fact that there was no wind to speak of. As one of the afternoon theatre showings let out more people, the square was congested and people were forced to go along the sidewalks congo line style, nearly spilling out noto the streets. That was when the ground began to shake a bit. Some people were wondering if this was due to repairs on the subway. But they could only be so lucky. In the center of Times Square, right underneath the famous billboard, a pair of five meter tall Moloids with drills for hands came erupting out underneath the concrete, followed by a literal army of underground minute men! And then came the King, "Conquer the Surface World! Show them that they owe us fealty by fiat! LET NONE ESCAPE!" "... yeah, you just call this number right here..." Recognizable fingers work the black sharpie across what has to be some pristinely natural curvature of Bosomous Maximus. "... and they'll make sure you get signed up for the wet t-shirt contest this weekend. Tell 'em Johnny Storm sent ya'." There's a wink and a smile as Johnny sends the random bimbo off to somewhere else. He's about to call up the next girl in line to meet him at this random personal appearance when there's ground shuddering and things get really, well, annoying. "Seriously?" Johnny stands up and looks off in the direction of the yelling. He rolls his eyes and looks back to his line of fangirls. "Five minutes, ladies. Be right back." And he runs, hops up onto the table of merchandise and leaps off, "FLAME ON!" His body ignites into flame and he soars up and off into the direction of the underground ruckus making itself known. "Are you being serious right now, dude?" The Torch pulls up short and crosses his arms over his chest, all flames and all hovering at the moment as he just stares down at the Foe of the Moment. "You can't even fit in a Fiat!" Boy, did you pick the wrong place to come up in. New freaking York? Just by random chance there's likely to be at least one mutant or alien just in earshot. Place is a hive of scum and villainy. Johnny Storm is literally scheduled to be here, even. In this case, Cassandra is there as well but far less noticeable. She is walking through the crowd with her hands stuffed deeply in her pockets, her destination not immediately obvious but her eyes keep flickering to a particular person ahead of her in the crowd and she moves as if ensuring she not be noticed. The shaking of the ground makes her shift her stance and look around, her head turning to let her take in the arrival of the underground army, and she purses her lips as if making a decision for a moment. A flick of her wrist and she throws something at her original target, a small tracker lodging in the target's briefcase, and she steps through the now-panicking crowd to a corner where she can get more prepared for this kind of situation. Kara Zor-El comes out of the store she was shopping in. Reminder to self, get a credit card. Paying with cash everywhere gets strange looks for some reason when you buy a lot, Kara. It's mainly clothes anyway, and she has 4 bags in her hands. And she steps out to see? Yep. Underground army of subterranean ... whatever they are. The last time something came out of the ground, she got attacked by an empathic dinosaur. So this is an improvement at least. Ben Grimm, otherwise walknig out of one of the rare small shops that populated one of the streets of Times Square right in time for a group of startled pigeons that took to the air at the shaking in the ground to give him a proper statue treatment as Ben just glared forwards at the running Mole Men, "What a revoltin' Development.." In this case, as the various heroes came across the surging underground monsters, the Mole Man gestured, "At them my minions! Do unto them what they have done unto us for so many times!" A pair of rampaging what looked like giant.. Mutant.. Tyrannosaurus Rexes made out of some sort of freakish concoction of biological flesh and pete moss let out roars as they ran and raced out! Charging towards Supergirl was a swarm of was looked like miniature flying mutant potatos, buzzing like wasps then and firing venomous clouds of mist as they blasted out at her by the dozen as a pair of what seemed like giant T-Rexes made out of some form of moss charged into the perpetually stuck traffic! On ground-level defense, a figure leaps out of the crowd with what appears to be a torn shirt over her head with a slash in the middle so her brown eyes can see, a sports bra on top, and sweat pants on her heinie. The girl's asian skin is clearly visible, but her face and identiy for once is protected. She dives forward into the horde of humanoid creatures and immediately slams her left foot into the oncoming pile in a dive-kick, willing to engage at close range and preferring the smaller prey. Kara Zor-El pauses. "I miss having normal villains to fight..." she says as she gets attacked by sentient tubers. Poison-spitting tubers. She purses her lips and blows a hurricane-level torrent at them as they try to swarm her. Then looks around to try to get an idea of... .what in Rao's name was going on. It's hard to miss the sound of the street being torn up, and Superboy can recognize 'villainous monologue' at a mile. He flies through the skies, heading towards the disturbance, only to discover... Well, um... he's honestly not sure what. He hovers for a moment, then the T-rexes go for bystanders. "When did we ever have normal villains?" he asks, and sees t-shirt girl rushing to the rescue. He opens his mouth, raising a finger as if about to say something, but hesitates. Then there's a flying potato wasp shooting spray into his face, which proves to be more distracting than an athletic, underdressed Eurasian girl. Human Torch spots other heroes coming into the mix and there's not a chance in the world that he's not going to have a ball with this. "I call dibs on any dropped XP!" And the Torch is flying low and into the fray of the mutant army. He dips in and out of them, swirling and leaving a trail of fire as he speeds through them at an insane speed. A hand is extended out every once in a while and soon enough, he's exploding from out the middle of them and back up into the sky, snickering and looking down at the various asses on fire that, from this height, depict a middle finger made out burning mutant flesh. It is also about this time that they all realize they've been set on fire and they scatter and start trying to put each other out. With extreme prejudice! "Fire in the hole!" And that just has Johnny cracking up as he hovers in the air. Hahaha. Cassandra Cain has on a sports bra which exposes her beyond-athletic figure and the scars that are her heritage from her family. That being said, the fact that she cut up her shirt to put over her head is probably a decent choice. The girl takes note of the arrival of the Super team amidst whirling with her hands on the shoulders of two different cro-magnonesque things, her legs whirling over everyone's heads, and she uses the momentum to slam the two together with brutal force. Landing in the gap their bodies create when they part, she leans forward and elbows another Morlock in the chest and then climbs its crumbling body to leap backwards into the crowd, disappearing under the wave of bodies. Going to charge over into the mess, the erupting tuber mutants popped by Johnny running otherwise go *ERLBPOP* and splut all over Ben like he was facing off with the Spud ghost, and Ben is otherwise covered from stony head on down with gooey, foul smelling sewer cream, "I shoulda stayed in bed.." Ben lets out a grunt and goes to charge more into the morass of mayhem. The spraying mists of poison and foam otherwise aren't doing much over to Kara, but the spray itself is almost seeming to cling to her as more of it was blasted, like a sticky sort of webbing.. And likely leaidng to the possible ruining over o fher outfit then as the T-Rexes stomped over into traffic. Around the Mole Man came up from underground what looked like more of those flying little spuds spewing schmuck. But, as they flew up from under the earth, they began clinging to one another, starting to form a torso, arms and legs, and a head, like a potato but evil humanoid protozoa.. In the mass of humanoid invaders, an arm appears from time to time as Cassandra drives her fists into the bodies of the creatures, sometimes a Morlock head rising up as if struck from below. The fact that she is effectively the shortest thing in the area is very noticeable by the lack of being able to see her at any given time. However, the noises from the pile into which Ben is charging are loud and have an occasional wet cracking noise, as if they are beating something to death in there. For the moment, Ben is being splutted on by exploding tubes, Kon is facing off with a group of Moss-Made T-Rexes charging into traffic, Cassandra is buried under a bevvy of bugs, Kara is being slimed upon by string, and Mole Man is Monologuing. And Johnny is making everyone into French Fried's. "Anyone got some sour cream?" Superboy asks as the spuds bake, turning to intercept the Mossterous Dinos. His approach to the things is far less lethal than Johnny's, simply trying to physically stop the creatures. "What do you think, Kara? Intelligent? Heck, are these things even animals?" Charging over towards the girl buried under the spuds, reeking of cream, Ben called out, "Oh no ya don't! Hold on kid, I'm comin'!" Ben might not know who she was, but he still had a soft spot for kids, charging at Cassandra to try and yank her by one outstretched arm free of the evil tubers. Kara Zor-El looks over at Superboy, an annoyed look or face as she stands there with her bags. Oh. And covered in slime. "They slimed me." Too bad Kara hasnt watched Ghostbusters - that reference would have been hilarious then. Instead of really iritating to her. "I set FIRE! To the RAIN!" Okay, not that it's actually raining but the pun still works since the Torch is soaring around above everyone and hurling random fireballs down in the direction of those that are mutated evil things from under ground. He even makes sure to toss some flames in the direction of those heroic types that are giving him a hand. Everyone except Ben gets a little aerial flame assistance. "Psst! Hey Holy Moley!" Torch pauses to wiggle his flaming fingers at Mole Man. "If this is all you got, you might as well pack up and go home! Because: LAAAAAAAMMMME!" The Mole Man shook his otherwise somewhat spiffy fingers at the Human Torch! "You! Finish him my Fiendish Friends! Spout out his flame and stomp all over his name!" A pair of what almost looked like POkemon - brown and dark green things with large funnels for faces aimed themselves over at Johnny, firing thick stremas of goop through the air with the force of a fire hose! Cassandra Cain becomes visible as Benjamin ploughs through the sea of Morlocks towards her, her legs wrapped around the neck of one morlock as two others pound on her back with the butts of their weapons, leaving what will likely be horrible bruises on her ribs. She releases the one that she was throttling to allow it to fall to the ground and grabs at Ben's arm to get dragged out of the morass. She looks the mighty-muscled Thing in the eyes as she gets time to reset and room to move, offering "Thanks." Splutted and spunked over in partially spun strands of strong silk, one of the moss mauling T-Rexes went to stomp over towards Kara. Letting out a monstrous roar, head easily the size of her body, razor sharp teeth as strong as organic steel.. Going to take a CHOMP on her then as it went to roar and howl. Only for a loud CRACK to be heard as every single tooth shattered over upon her. Ben Grimm has managed to toss Cassandra up and over onto his back then, and she's able t otherwise leap about. Ben himself, seeing the girl striking out, calls out, "Kid, Gutterball!" And getting an idea Ben goes over to, if not stopped, grab Cassandra over by the wrists and then starting to if able to grab and twirl her about faster and faster, Ben spinning like he was readying for a shot putt - careful to keep his momentum from yanking Cassandra's arms out of her sockets, but the spinning hopefully letting her strike out and kick at everything in reach. Kara Zor-El frowns. "Okay.... seriously...." She drops her bags when a T-rex thing tries to bite her in half. "THAT IS ENOUGH!" she says angrily after the razor sharp teeth break instead of making the girl a nice Kryptonian hor d'oeuvres. She pulls her fist back, flies up a bit, and slams that fist into the T-rex's face. Oh and her eyes are glowing red. That can't be a good sign. As Superboy went to stop the creature, ending up flipping it over as his hard 'stop' to it's momentum had it carrying forwards, flipping through the air by the neck to SPLUT over in the ground then in an inertia-fueled judo smash, turning to mud! Johnny was playing this way too cool. To the point that he wasn't even paying attention to the fact that goop was being sent in his direction. In fact, he actually found himself getting closer to the ground as he spotted Ben and his New Sports Bra'd Friend doing some teammwork. Frown. "Hey! No using my big lug--" Goop'd. Johnny's flames go out as he falls the rest of the distance out of the air, trajectory sending him for a random I <3 NY merchandise table! CRASH! Cassandra is flipped up and over to Mr. Grimm's back and, oddly, is already reaching for his hands when he reaches for hers as if she has already divined what he's about to do. This is made more obvious by the grin barely visible under her torn t-shirt mask as her wiry, muscled arms flex to move her to into an optimum range and she literally runs her feet up a Morlock's face and launches her body into Ben's spinning motion and snapping her hard shin bones and feet into every living thing in range that's a viable target! There's a very satisfying wave of heads and bodies flying away from the circling pair as a ten-foot swath is cleared around the defensive circle with sounds of breaking bones and shattered pride. Ben's swinging of Cassandra is able to make a continuous defensive circle extending out about three meters as Ben continues his twirl, the two arcing about as Ben danced over like a ballerina as Ben used Cassandra to keep his space clear. Then, getting an idea, Ben went to pick up Cassandra on his hand then, calling out to Kon-El, "Kid, Batter Up!" Before launching her through the air at Superboy. Supergirl had pretty much disintegrated through one T-Rex as Superboy had smashe dover towards the other. Right at this point the pair of modular marble formed moloids had finished forming. Each going to let out a loud hiss, looking like something out of an old polygonal 3-D game, they went to march over towards the grounded Johnny. Superboy flinches at the unexpected flip. He makes sure nobody's gonna get smashed, but then he's gone, catching Supergirl's bags even as she upper-cuts the dino, leaving them on a nearby roof and looping back. He hits the ground behind the moloids, and, arms blurring faster than the eyes can follow, he's poking at them, teke primed to press against the newly formed bonds as soon as each one is contacted. Kara Zor-El didnt think I disintigrated anything Cassandra Cain is tossed in Superboy's direction just before the Super moves, landing on the ground and leaving her...hanging, as it were. In this case, thrown through the air she lands on the shoulders of another morlock and flips over the crowd until landing between two who weren't expecting to have someone suddenly behind them. Tapping the two on the shoulders to get their attention, the two morlocks pose a comical picture as they turn to see who is there and are greeted with a foot sweeping across at head-level which imitates the swinging she was just doing with the Thing a moment ago. Then with that dramatic moment out of the way and her sense of humour appeased, Cassandra suddenly goes full speed and bodies start flying up into the air as her fists and feet begin more earnest work. For some reason, nobody is laying a hand or weapon on her anymore, as they were earlier, and she seems to be safe now even amidst chaos. And Ben was going over to charge towards Johnny then to try and back up the flaming numbskull. Right over as one of the Moloids adjusted it's spray, hitting Ben over in the face then and blinding him as the other one sprayed the ground in front of him, Ben taking over a rocky tumble over like a bowling ball! All Cassandra is needing is some fish to go over with her chips as she's making flying french fries! She slices, she dices, all she needs now is a bit of dip! Ben Grimm pages: Johnny was hit and his fir eput out. Ben Grimm pages: You can set him on fire again. You paged Ben Grimm with 'um... i'm almost certain that's not how it works. Plus pretty sure Kara's first thought would not be 'incinerate the person with your heat vision Johnny takes his time getting up and back to his feet. He's groaning in pain but he's okay. He gives a shake of his head. "You're payin' for that one with interest, Morocco!" Johnny shakes some of the goop off and "FLAME ON!" His body re-ignites at a hotter level, burning what goop was on him in the first place into nothingness and roman candles his way back into the fray. He's lit up and cued up as a the Hothead at this point, as he's soaring with flaming speed to attempt to burn a path in the direction of Mole Man. If something happens to get in his way, he'll deal with it. With fire. Johnny is definitely a flamer as he goes to charge his way through, providing the spark to the match then as he was blasting his way through the Moloids. The goop that they'd bene spraying at his higher temperatures was quite, quite flaming then as he was able to quite put them out, leaving them in a sputtering and charcoal heap. Kon-El was hitting on the right idea, picking them apart them to little bits, the things shoddily constructed over in a sense as he was sending them tumbling and fumbling then, right as Cassandra was dancing to a punching, smashing beat, beating things up through the street. Ben himself had landed over in a pile of what was otherwise a homeless man's.. Packaging of things and getting more gunk on him, "I'm startin' ta sense a theme here.." Meanwhile, the Mole Man was hsaking his fist then, but otherwise starting to look towards the hole he had come up from.. Cassandra Cain snaps a kick at shin level that viciously changes into a rising front kick and knocks a morlock backwards landing amidst a group that are approaching Ben Grimm, giving him a little bit of backup. She's nearly run out of morlocks around her as they have some sense of survival instinct and the little female human has proven that they're likely to regret approaching. She delivers the final message with a fist extended behind her, without glancing back toward the last enemy in range, as her iron punch is delivered into the crotch of one last Morlock with a sick crunch. There's an actual wave of flinching and slight retreat around the girl as the morlocks witness that last one, and Cassandra starts looking for bigger game with narrowed eyes. When Cassandra cuts lose, she finds Superboy's hand on her shoulder. "Easy, Body-Language Girl," he says, having recognized her, if the nickname is any indication. "Someone's in charge of these things, right?" he asks, and starts looking around, ignoring the near-endless horde, and laying eyes on the green-clad dwarf. "What's with dwarves and green?" he muses, almost under his breath. Ben Grimm is managing to pick himself up while grumbling, and Mole Man is cutting to the chase, going to jump back down the hole then with his remaining Mole Minions as they rush back from whence they came as Ben jabs over at him, "You, you wreck up Times Square and think yer just gonna vamoose like that?!" Torch pours on the speed and the flames, flying like a rocket towards the hole and colliding into it without a second thought. The result will be an explosion of flames that looks a lot like an actual explosion but standing there somewhere in the midst of it all is the Human Torch. He's hoping the explosion will have rocked Mole Man enough that Ben or somebody can get to him. Teamwork! Cassandra Cain turns to Superboy and gives him a friendly fist-bump as she's stopped. She stands down and bows towards the retreating Mole Man, ushering him in that less friendly direction with slightly amused eyes. "Yes," she responds to his question. Someone is, indeed, in charge. The other question, no response because huh? Superboy pats Batgirl on the shoulder, and launches himself, breathing out hard, cutting a path through the still curling flames, navigating by the sound of a panicked heartbeat. When he comes out the other side of the fireball, he's holding a lightly singed Harvey Elder by the back of his cape. "How's this guy work, do I take the stick away or something?" he asks. Harvey goes dangling over by the back of his cape, even as he calls out to his Moloids as they scamper, "Flee! I shall return to you soon! But for now, to your own safety!" Even as Kon-El grabs him and carries the Mole Man away, the Moloids scattering from the aboveground fireground and heading back down underneath it. Ben slowly sits up, and rubs some sludge from his face, "This is' gettin' old real fast.." Even as emergency services arrive then, as well as an old style squad car for the Mole Man to be manhandled into. Superboy blinks at Harvey's concern for the minions, and looks down into the hole, then to the newly arrived emergency services. He squints somewhat, and, as the last Moloid disappears down the tunnel the entrance seals itself, the rock and rubble and dirt immediately around Superboy falling back into the hole. It's only after the dirt threatens to take him with it that Superboy lifts off and carries Harvey to the squad car. Cassandra Cain looks around, absolutely certain that she'd seen Kara in that mess. She throws a salute to Ben Grimm and then can be seen looking for a place that she can lose the half-dressed look and get back to her job. She apparently never considered clean-up or checking for injured people, pulling a small tracker out of her pocket and glancing at it, then in a southerly direction. Ben Grimm gives Cassandra a thumbs up, and then glances over at Johnny, "You okay kid? And take care, will ya?" Giving a thumbs up over at Cassandra before turning over to his teammate.